Activision’s Destiny has been closely aligned with Sony ever since its February 2013 reveal. This promotional deal even extends to Europe, and in fact prohibits Destiny for Xbox from being advertised there at all. As you can imagine, consumers seem liable to think that Destiny is a PS4 exclusive. After all, when there’s no mention of an Xbox version anywhere to be found, what are they supposed to think?
To combat Sony and Activision’s advertising partnership, Xbox EU has launched the Destiny Fragrance website. At face value it looks like the hardware maker is selling a new brand of cologne. The kicker is, the bottle pictured above features a full Destiny game logo with Xbox One branding below it. If you click “learn more” you’ll be told that “Destiny is actually an epic new first-person shooter, available on Xbox. Thing is, we didn’t have permission to run adverts for the game.” You’re then offered to purchase Destiny in a number of Xbox One system bundles.
However, some might argue the promotion is still a breach of Activision’s contract with Sony. Further text tells readers to “buy the game and become legend,” which is an obvious call to action for the public. Clearly the fine folks over at Xbox have been frustrated by the shifty maneuverings of Sony, and have thus taken matters into their own hands. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a similarly suggestive ad if Rise Of The Tomb Raider ever comes to PlayStation platforms.
Is this fake fragrance ad a lame business tactic, or a genius ploy? Let me know in the comments section below!